He was also the professor of sculpture of the Royal Academy (1868–76). His lectures, published posthumously, were described by art historian Benedict Read as "the most consistent and intelligent exposition of sculptural thinking" of his era.[1]

On Chantrey's death, Weekes took over his studio and, at Chantrey's request, completed his unfinished works, most notably an equestrian bronze of the Duke of Wellington for the Royal Exchange.[1][2][10] His subsequent career flourished; one of the most successful British sculptors of the mid-Victorian period, he left nearly £30,000 at his death.[1][2] Despite the considerable success he enjoyed during his lifetime, his reputation was not long-lasting, and the rise of the New Sculpture shortly after his death led to his works being neglected.[1]

An associate of the Royal Academy from 1851, he was elected a Royal Academician in 1863.[2][8] In 1851, he won a gold medal from the Royal Society of Arts for an essay on the Great Exhibition.[2] He was the academy's professor of sculpture from 1868 until 1876.[8]

Weekes exhibited 124 works at the Royal Academy between 1828 and his death, with over a hundred being portraits. He wrote in 1852 that the objective of portraiture was "to give the eye permanently that which no history or biography will be able hereafter thoroughly to convey to the imagination."[2][11] His best works achieve this aim, combining emotional impact with accurate portraiture and exemplary technique.[1][2] A contemporary reviewer praised his work for its "truth of character and delicacy of expression."[12]

Originally strongly influenced by Chantrey, Weekes developed a more individual style towards the end of the 1840s, introducing naturalistic detailing into his neo-classical works.[2]Mark Stocker, an expert on Victorian sculpture, considers that "His sculpture and writings, more than any other contemporary sculptor's, embodied current beliefs in fusing classicism and realism."[1] Weekes was, however, against what he considered excessive realism, as exemplified by his contemporary Carlo Marochetti; he always opposed the colouring of sculpture, instead applying, for example, deep undercutting.[1]

His marble monument to Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1853/4) was commissioned by their son, Sir Percy Shelley, and his wife after the death of Mary Shelley. Unlike the later Shelley memorial by Onslow Ford, Weekes has chosen to include the figure of Mary Shelley. The pose echoes Michelangelo's Pietà, with the poet cradled by an idealised figure of his mourning wife. Weekes, however, depicts not a heroic nude in the neo-classical tradition but a bloodless corpse, and realistic details, including seaweed wrapped around his arm, recall the particulars of Shelley's death by drowning in Italy.[1][2][14] The monument was the subject of contemporary critical acclaim,[2] but St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, where Mary Shelley was buried, refused to take the work, and it was installed instead in Christchurch Priory.[15]

Manufactures group, one of four surrounding the central canopy of the Albert Memorial, London

Unlike Chantrey, Weekes executed a few ideal figures from 1850 onwards. The Suppliant (1850), his earliest work in this genre, secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy. Resting after a Run, also known as Girl with the Hoop (1850/1), depicts the daughter of Frederick J. Reed in an idealised picture of childhood.[2] Like the Shelley monument, his popular work The Young Naturalist (1854), showing a young girl examining nature at the seaside, juxtaposes realism with idealism, with a child in an 1850s bathing suit clutching a starfish in a pose reminiscent of the crouching Venus and Venus Pudica.[1][16] Other works in this genre include Sardanapalus (1861), from Lord Byron's verse tragedy on the Assyrian king,[17] and Luna (1866), depicting a girl with the moon as a shield.[18]

His most ambitious later work is the allegorical work Manufactures (1864–70), one of four marble groups depicting the industrial arts, for the London Albert Memorial by George Gilbert Scott. Although Weekes was not on Queen Victoria's original list of sculptors, being selected to work on the project only after John Gibson declined to participate, his group occupies the preferable south side of the finished monument. A central female figure holds an hourglass, symbolising the critical nature of time to industry, while an ironworker stands at his anvil and a potter and weaver offer their wares.[2][22]

In his role as professor of sculpture to the Academy, Weekes delivered a series of eighteen lectures which were published posthumously as Lectures on Art, with a biographical introduction by his son, John Ernest Weekes.[1][2] Art historian Benedict Read described the Lectures as "the most consistent and intelligent exposition of sculptural thinking in the Victorian era".[1] In addition to conventional topics such as composition, beauty, style, taste, idealism versus realism, portraiture and Greek sculpture, Weekes devoted three lectures of the series to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and one to John Gibson and his mentors, William Behnes and Sir Francis Chantrey.[2][9][23] He advised students to become "thinking men", but also advocated a practical approach to learning, "with the modelling tool in hand, and the clay to operate upon".[1][9]

His gold-medal-winning essay was also published in 1852.[2] Described in a contemporary review as "thoroughly practical",[11] it includes an exposition of the technical aspects of casting in bronze and carving in marble.[2]

^ abWeekes H, Weekes JE. Lectures on Art, Delivered at the Royal Academy, London with Portrait, a Short Sketch of the Author's Life, and Eight Selected Photographs of his Works (1880). Contents at: [2] (18 March 2008).